Stranger in the Moonlight (31 page)

“No!” Travis said from the open door. “This isn’t all right. None of it is. Something happened to you today and I want to know what it is.”

“I can’t—”

“So help me, if you say you can’t tell me, I’ll—”

“You’ll
what
?” she shot at him, her voice rising with every word. “Leave? Walk away when things get too much for you? Disappear like you did before? Leave me alone, without a word? Let me search for you for
years
and all the time you were sneaking around at my art shows? Is
that
what you’ll do?”

“No,” he said softly. “I won’t do that ever again. But right now, what I am going to do is stay in this room with you until you tell me what’s tearing you up inside.”

“I . . .” Her anger left her and she sat down on the side of the bed, her hands over her face.

Travis sat down beside her and put his arm around her, drawing her head to his shoulder. “Does this have to do with Russell being my half brother?”

Kim hesitated for only a second. “How did . . . ?”

“I’ve not had a lot of experience with relatives, but I’m a good observer. Who else can look at you with the hatred Russ had for me that first day? It was like looking in a mirror, except that one reflection wanted to murder the other one.”

Kim let out a deep sigh of relief that he knew. When her body relaxed, Travis turned her around on the bed so they stretched out together.

“So what happened while I was on the phone to Penny? You were fine while we were shopping, but when you came into the diner you were so white you looked like a vampire had drained you of blood.”

“That’s a more appropriate description than you know,” Kim said with a grimace.

Travis kissed her forehead. “I want to hear every word of it. Don’t leave anything out.”

“But—”

He leaned over her and looked into her eyes. “No buts. No excuses. And most of all, no
fear
. Especially not of me. Did you murder anyone I love?”

She knew he was trying to lighten the mood, but to Kim all this was very serious. “No,” she said, “but I’m considering running your father down with a lawn mower.”

Travis’s face lost its look of amusement and she saw the man who appeared in courtrooms. He fell back on the bed and pulled her to him so close she could hardly breathe. If she’d had her way, she would have moved even closer.

Where to begin? “Remember last night before dinner when I waited for you while you talked on the phone?”

“To that idiot Forester? Sure. What happened?”

“I met your father.” Travis’s hand tightened on Kim’s shoulder, but otherwise he said nothing.

Once Kim started her story, Travis said little, and listened hard. She told him of her two encounters with the man who called himself Red, and she went over every word she could remember of their conversations. She told Travis of Red’s little homily about children eating lead paint but only remembering being forbidden from doing what they wanted to do.

“That sounds like Dad. He thinks he can explain away every rotten thing he does.”

She could tell that he wasn’t shocked that his father had shown up in Janes Creek. But Travis drew in his breath when she told of Mr. Maxwell fishing in Edilean.

“I never asked Mom where she heard of Edilean in the first place. I never even thought about it, but Dad could have told her. It makes sense. Go on, please.”

She told him of when she realized Russell was his brother. “They were giving me looks of pleading not to tell you.”

“Penny was. Russ was enjoying every second of it.”

“You knew?!”

“One of the things I’ve learned in being a lawyer is to watch as well as listen. None of you were subtle.”

“Do you think Russ knows you know?”

“Of course. The kid is loving every minute of this.”

“He’s not even two years younger than you are, so he’s not really a kid.”

“Does your brother see you as an adult?”

“Not at all,” Kim said.

“So what happened today while I was in the diner?”

“I met with your Mrs. Pendergast.”

Travis was silent for a moment. “Now you’re shocking me. What did Penny have to say?”

“She doesn’t know your father is here. She—”

“No, wait. Tell me from the beginning. How she contacted you, what she said, you did, every word of it and don’t leave anything out.”

Slowly, Kim began to go over what happened. She started with the chairs and how she moved hers.

Chuckling, Travis hugged her and gave her a hard kiss on the mouth. “Good girl! I’m proud of you.”

Kim liked his kiss so much that she returned it, but both of them wanted—needed—to talk about what she’d been told.

She started on the easier things, what she thought was least likely to upset Travis. She told him of how Russell was conceived. When Travis didn’t reply, she said, “You don’t seem surprised.”

“I am, actually, but in an opposite way from what you mean. The scuttlebutt around the office is that Dad and Penny were lovers for years. The surprise is that it was just once.”

“A one time that produced a child.”

“Big, ugly kid at that,” Travis said, and Kim heard affection in his voice. “What else? And what are you holding back?”

“Will you let me tell the story in my own time?”

“I think I have, haven’t I?” he said softly.

Turning, she looked at him, her eyes asking what he meant.

“I didn’t take over.”

“You mean like you did with Dave?” she asked.

“I . . .” He hesitated, as what he had to say was difficult for him. “I’m afraid I have more of my father in me than I want. When I took over Borman Catering, I was high-handed, and as you told me, I didn’t believe that you could handle something like that on your own. I apologize. I’m not going to do that again. I’m not going to step in and take over your life, but I do think that if we’re going to make this work that we need to do things
together
. As a pair, a team. I’m here and I can listen. Maybe if you tell me what is bothering you, together the two of us, can find a solution.” He grinned. “That said . . . I admit that I have
never
been told off by anyone as
you
did. I had to check my eyebrows to make sure you hadn’t singed them off.”

“I wasn’t that bad.”

“Yes you were and I deserved it.”

She snuggled back into his arms. “So this time . . .”

“This time I sat back and let you handle it on your own, and that wasn’t easy for me. I can’t tell you how much I wanted to let Russell know what I thought of the way he was smirking at you.”

“Your brother.”

“Yeah,” Travis said with a little catch in his voice. “Odd thought, that one. Okay, so tell me more.”

Kim took a breath. “You’re not going to like this part.”

“That means it’s about Dad.”

“Yes, it is,” Kim said and began telling him Randall Maxwell’s point of view of Travis’s childhood. He didn’t speak during the whole time and when she finished, Kim looked at him.

“I’d guessed some of it,” he said. “Not that Dad would ever admit to me that he was bullied by anyone. My guess is that his mouth got him in trouble. He tends to order everyone around, and he was probably the same as a kid.”

“You’re not upset by this?”

“I . . .” Travis began, and smiled. “No, I’m not. This is hard to admit, but maybe I went to work for him because I wanted to know if I could cut it with my old man. It’s not easy being the son of Randall Maxwell. Sometimes when I was doing stunt work the guys would ask me why I was risking my neck every day. They liked to tell me that if they were me, they’d be on a private jet sipping champagne.”

“But not you,” Kim said. “At least not then. I think you did come to like those things.”

“I did. I had lots of champagne. Lots of—well, other things.”

“Must have been nice,” Kim said quietly.

“Not really. You know something? I received more actual
caring
from Joe Layton than I did from . . . well, from most anyone I ever met. Can I tell you a secret?”

“Please do,” she said. She was smiling at his words about Joe, the man who was going to be his stepfather. Joe lived in Edilean, so maybe Travis would too.

“I want to open a camp.”

“What kind of camp?”

“A free one,” Travis said. “It’s been in my mind for years and I thought I’d try it in California, but ever since I saw the preserve around Edilean, it’s stayed with me. Joe could build it, Penny could manage it, and—”

“She wants to retire.”

“After years with my father this would be a retirement.”

“Your mom could decorate the place.”

He pulled her up to face him. “How do you think you’d be at teaching kids how to make macaroni necklaces?”

“I taught you how to make a house for a doll, so I can teach anyone anything.”

“Taught me? Ha! You ordered me around.” He was unbuttoning her shirt.

“Please tell me you aren’t going to ask me to shut down my business and work for you.”

“I’d never dream of it,” he said as his lips touched her neck. “But I can tell you that my secret plan is to take over managing your finances.”

“Would you please?” she whispered as his mouth took her breast.

“Think I can get you to give me a recommendation to your local law firm?”

She drew back from her mouth on his ear. “Our very own McDowell, Aldredge, and Welsch? You have to be
born
into that law firm.”

“Marriage not good enough?” he asked, but then his mouth was on hers.

An hour before, the last thing Kim wanted was sex, but now all she wanted was release.

“I think we have a future,” she whispered.

Travis drew back from her. “What?”

“I think we have a future,” she repeated.

“You . . .” He began, but stopped. “You really did think I was going to leave you?”

“Yes. I mean no. I just couldn’t figure out where we were going to
live
.”

“Your house, if I can get you to move your stuff out of the garage. Joe said—”

She kissed him to silence. “What about the divorce?”

“Joe can handle that. In fact I’m a bit afraid for my father when he goes up against Joe. Do you want to talk
more
?” His voice was full of exasperation.

“Yes!” she said. “Yes and yes and yes! I want to talk endlessly about us, about our future, about—Oh!” Travis’s mouth was on her stomach.

“Go on, keep talking,” he said as he moved his lips lower on her body.

“Maybe later,” she said as she closed her eyes and forgot all about whatever she’d been worried about.

Fifteen

When Kim woke
up, she could see that it was dark outside. The first thing she noticed was that Travis wasn’t in bed with her. They’d made love all afternoon and she knew she’d never enjoyed anything so much in her life. She hadn’t realized it, but from the beginning she’d had so many questions that she’d never fully relaxed. All the years of searching for him, of not knowing what had happened to him, were between them.

It wasn’t that she’d completely forgiven him, nor did she fully understand his male reasoning, but for the first time since she’d seen him, a stranger standing in the moonlight, she saw the possibility that she
would
get over it.

There was a knock on the door into the hallway, and Kim looked about for her clothes. They were folded neatly on a chair, certainly not where she’d tossed them a few hours ago.

“Just a minute,” she called, but then Travis came out of the connecting room. He was showered, shaved, and wearing jeans and a T-shirt. She thought about not getting out of bed.

“Hungry?” he asked as he opened the door and spoke to someone. He closed the door and turned to Kim. “They’re going to set up dinner in my room. Or would you rather go downstairs and hear what the Pendergasts have found out about your relatives?”

He made the second choice sound so awful that she laughed. “Russell will miss you.”

“He’ll miss
you,
” Travis said. “Do you think that kid has a girlfriend somewhere?”

“I’m beginning to wonder that too. I guess if he were a New York lawyer that you’d know it.”

“Probably.” Travis sat down on the bed beside her, and his face was serious. “I didn’t realize that I hadn’t made myself clear about my hopes for the future.”

She knew he was referring to her outburst of fear that he would leave her again. “It’s all right,” Kim said. “We have . . .” She hesitated. “Some time to think about what we want to do.”

The sound of a champagne cork being popped came from the other room.

“I think our name is being called,” Travis said as he took her hand to pull her out of bed.

But Kim pulled the sheet close to her and didn’t get out. “I’ll meet you at the table
after
I’ve had a shower,” she said pointedly.

Smiling, he kissed her hand and left the room.

Kim took a full thirty minutes showering and getting dressed. She put on a blue silk dress that she’d tossed in her bag as an afterthought. When she’d packed she’d thought it was over between her and Travis, that she’d never see him again. Smiling, she remembered that she’d thought he had given up. She had told him off and he’d run away. But Kim was learning that the three Maxwell men
never
gave up.